Medical articles today

Women with gout are at greater risk of a heart attack than men with the disease, indicates research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. Gout is known to boost the risk of a heart attack in men. But to date, little has been known about the impact of gout on women's cardiovascular health. Gout is common and caused by inflammation in the joints as a result of excess uric acid deposits. Uric acid is a by-product of purines, which are abundant in a Western diet. Obesity, weight gain, high alcohol intake, high blood pressure, poorly functioning kidneys and certain drugs can all precipitate its development. The authors base their findings on a population study of more than 9500 gout patients and 48, 000 people without the disease, aged 65 and older.

On Feb. 8 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the cholesterol-lowering medication Crestor (rosuvastatin) for some patients who are at increased risk of heart disease but have not been diagnosed with it. The new indication is for reducing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke or the need for a procedure to treat blocked or narrowed arteries in patients who have never been told they have heart disease but are nevertheless at increased risk of a cardiac event. Specifically, this includes men 50 years of age and older and women 60 years of age and older who have an elevated amount of a substance known as high sensitivity C-reactive protein in their blood and at least one additional traditional cardiovascular risk factor such as smoking, high blood pressure, a family history of premature heart disease, or low amounts of high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol, the so-called "good cholesterol.

Olive Branch, Miss. resident Glenn Lusk has a special perspective on the value of his Medicare Advantage plan. It was a HealthSpring-contracted nurse practitioner who discovered during a home visit in November that Lusk was experiencing serious heart trouble. "Somebody up above was looking out for me, " Lusk said. Nurse practitioner Lucretia Daniel was concerned with the symptoms she observed in Lusk. "I said, 'You know, I really think this is your heart. I think we need to send you to the ER to get this checked out.' I knew there was a high probability that there was something that was going on. He had been dealing with this for three days and hadn't gone in.

Scientists from the UK and The Netherlands have identified for the first time a variant of a gene that is linked to biological ageing in humans and suggest the discovery will help us better understand cancer and diseases of ageing. The findings of the study by researchers based at the University of Leicester and King's College London, UK, and also at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, were reported online in Nature Genetics on 7 February. The Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation sponsored the work. Professor Nilesh Samani, a British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences co-led the project and also co-wrote the paper.

Bioheart, Inc., (OTCBB:BHRT) announced that the company has commenced work on its REGEN trial, a Phase I Clinical Trial to test genetically modified MyoCell® in patients suffering from Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). Bioheart's MyoCell® is a regenerative cell therapy that uses myoblasts, or muscle stem cells, that are grown from a patient's own muscle. MyoCell® has been tested successfully on patients in four clinical trials. The REGEN trial is designed to test the safety and effectiveness of a composition of muscle stem cells that have been gene-modified to induce a greater than usual release of the SDF-1 protein. The SDF-1 protein is a molecule in the human body that, after an injury, is naturally released by most tissues to attract stem cells.

Cardium Therapeutics (NYSE Amex: CXM) reported that its Cardium Biologics division provided an update on plans for the continuing commercial development of Generx™ (alferminogene tadenovec, Ad5FGF-4), a DNA-based angiogenic therapy product candidate for patients with coronary artery disease. The update was presented by Gabor M. Rubanyi, M.D., Ph.D., Cardium's Chief Scientific Officer at the annual 2010 Cell & Gene Therapy Forum in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 2010. Cardium Biologics reported on the following findings and plans: (1) As previously announced, based on an agreement with the FDA, Generx would be re-formulated to increase its shelf life, and further formulation enhancements are expected to allow for storage using a standard freezer (rather than at -70 degrees C), and potentially a lyophilized version for refrigerated storage.